Pray to God that your attachment to such transitory things as wealth, name, and creature comforts may become less and less every day.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

You speak of doing good to the world. Is the world such a small thing? And who are you, pray, to do good to the world? First realize God, see Him by means of spiritual discipline. If He imparts power you can do good to others; otherwise not.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Only two kinds of people can attain self-knowledge: those who are not encumbered at all with learning, that is to say, whose minds are not over-crowded with thoughts borrowed from others; and those who, after studying all the scriptures and sciences, have come to realise that they know nothing.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Disease is the tax which the soul pays for the body, as the tenant pays house-rent for the use of the house.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

The more you increase your love for God, the more your lust and anger will decrease.”

Through selfless work, love of God grows in the heart. Then through his grace one realize him in course of time. God can be seen. One can talk to him as I am talking to you.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

God has revealed to me that only the Paramatman, whom the Vedas describe as the Pure Soul, is as immutable as Mount Sumeru, unattached, and beyond pain and pleasure. There is much confusion in this world of His maya. One can by no means say that ‘this’ will come after ‘that’ or ‘this’ will produce ‘that’.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Live in the world like a mud-fish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

Many good sayings are to be found in holy books, but merely reading them will not make one religious.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

What Brahman is cannot be described. All things in the world — the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, the six systems of philosophy — have been defiled, like food that has been touched by the tongue, for they have been read or uttered by the tongue. Only one thing has not been defiled in this way, and that is Brahman. No one has ever been able to say what Brahman is.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Unalloyed love of God is the essential thing. All else is unreal.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

When the flower blooms, the bees come uninvited.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

It is easy to talk on religion, but difficult to practice it.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

One man may read the Bhagavata by the light of a lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light; but the lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well as on the virtuous.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Travel in all the four quarters of the earth, yet you will find nothing anywhere. Whatever there is, is only here.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

If you first fortify yourself with the true knowledge of the Universal Self, and then live in the midst of wealth and worldliness, surely they will in no way affect you.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

The physicians of one class feel the patients and go away, merely prescribing medicine. As they leave the room they simply ask the patient to take the medicine. They are the poorest class of physicians.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

If you want to go east, don’t go west.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

One must be very particular about telling the truth. Through truth one can realize God.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

Bondage is of the mind; freedom too is of the mind. If you say ‘I am a free soul. I am a son of God who can bind me’ free you shall be.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

If you must be mad, be it not for the things of the world. Be mad with the love of God.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

God is everywhere but He is most manifest in man. So serve man as God. That is as good as worshipping God.

— Sri Ramkrisna Paramhansh

If you desire to be pure, have firm faith, and slowly go on with your devotional practices without wasting your energy in useless scriptural discussions and arguments. Your little brain will otherwise be muddled.